Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH Acquires Shares of 9,746 Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO)

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in Peoples Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:PEBO) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,746 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $289,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in PEBO. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in Peoples Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $241,000. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 18,924 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $600,000 after buying an additional 2,857 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Peoples Bancorp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,002,366 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $63,455,000 after buying an additional 35,358 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Peoples Bancorp by 20.6% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 31,624 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,002,000 after acquiring an additional 5,400 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Peoples Bancorp by 87.1% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 115,352 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,656,000 after acquiring an additional 53,707 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Peoples Bancorp

In related news, Director Carol A. Schneeberger sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.76, for a total value of $31,760.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 25,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $804,480.80. This trade represents a 3.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Dwight Eric Smith acquired 1,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $30.27 per share, with a total value of $32,086.20. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 6,999 shares in the company, valued at $211,859.73. This represents a 17.85% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,962 shares of company stock valued at $61,110 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.41% of the company’s stock.

Peoples Bancorp Stock Up 0.4%

Peoples Bancorp stock opened at $28.27 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.25. Peoples Bancorp Inc. has a 12 month low of $26.21 and a 12 month high of $37.07.

Peoples Bancorp (NASDAQ:PEBO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $115.02 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $113.20 million. Peoples Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 16.88%. On average, analysts anticipate that Peoples Bancorp Inc. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peoples Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.41 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. This represents a $1.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.8%. Peoples Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 56.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on PEBO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Peoples Bancorp from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Peoples Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $37.50 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Peoples Bancorp from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Peoples Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.25.

Peoples Bancorp Profile

Peoples Bancorp Inc operates as the holding company for Peoples Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking products and services. The company accepts various deposit products, including demand deposit accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and governmental deposits; and provides commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, construction, finance, residential real estate, and consumer indirect and direct loans, as well as home equity lines of credit and overdrafts.